Damaged by Collision
by krissixh
Summary: SNK Mafia-AU. Continuation of the story "On collision course".
1. Chapter 1

_"Let me ask you a question, Don Smith: What's the value of a human life to you?"_

/

The air smelled like salt. Thankfully, it was humid enough not to notice the actual temperature, which was somewhere around _'it's not even that hot in hell'_. People were shouting in various languages, kids shrieking while running around and that one annoying man was running up and down the beach side, shouting 'Watermelons!'.

In short, Levi was on vacation - and he hated it.

He was lying on a sun-lounger under the biggest sun-shade the hotel had to lend, and he tried checking his e-mails. The damn Wi-Fi, however, had almost no signal at the beach - even though the hotel was literally just 30 meters away. Levi cursed and put his phone back in his pocket. As far as he could see, he was the only person wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but he didn't care about it. He hated the sun and the heat; he hated how he had sunburned, even though he put on sun cream every 20 minutes. What's more, he hated it, that only three days had passed, and he had four more to go.

Suddenly, he felt water drops dripping on him, and he jerked awake. Somewhere along him cursing the whole island, he must have fallen asleep. A face, that was covered with huge diving goggles - the kind you get for 10 $ at every shop along the seaside - starred at him.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he hissed, moving to the top edge of the sun-lounger, to avoid his clothes getting wet.

"Aw, come on, Levi. It's just a few drops," Hanji laughed, putting the goggles away. Then she shook her head, water drops flying in every direction.

"Stop this shit," Levi groaned in annoyance and Hanji laughed even more.

"You know, you're no fun at all," she teased and grabbed her beach-towel, to wipe herself dry. Compared to Levi, she had already got a remarkable tan. _And she most likely had developed gills _- Levi assumed, given the time she had spent in the water.

"That's because I'm not here for fun," he reminded her. Considering the conversation finished, he took the newspapers from the little wooden table between the two sun-loungers.

Hanji stretched out on her lounger. "Yeah, yeah. You're here for business, we know," she said and rolled her eyes, which Levi luckily couldn't see due to the dark sunglasses she had put on. "Correct me if I'm wrong; but haven't you met that guy yesterday?"

"And your point is?" the raven asked, looking up from the paper.

"That you've finished the task Erwin assigned to you and that you could at least pretend that you're having fun with me?" Hanji said in a bittersweet tone.

"Maybe I would have fun," Levi answered with a lower voice; "if it wasn't for the guys that are stalking us."

"What, where?" The woman sat up and looked around them. There were a lot of people around them, but they all seemed to be normal vacationers, minding their own business.

Levi got up from his lounger and sat down next to Hanji. He stroked her wet hairstrands out of her face and held it together like a pony-tail with his right hand. Before she could ask him if he had been sun-struck to act like that, he gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

She tasted horribly salty, but he traced a line with his lips to her right ear nevertheless. "Close your eyes. Don't look," he breathed against it and planted another kiss just under her earlobe. "There are two guys watching from the balcony of the hotel." - _Another kiss_ - "The woman in pink down there," - _kiss_ - "has a gun in her beach-bag." – _kiss_ – "and two more guys just came in, hiding behind the palms."

He traced his kissing line back to her lips and Hanji opened her eyes.

"We should probably get the hell out of here, until I can confirm what they want."

In the past, Hanji might have started to panic at the thought that some assassins may be surrounding her. However, during her months in the Mafia, she had learned that there was no need to do so, when Levi was next to her. Then, she realised that he wasn't armed. "Won't it be suspicious if we run away now?"

The raven winked. "They'll just think we're hurrying to get in our room."

"And here I was wondering why you were kissing me even though I had no shower," Hanji laughed as she understood what he meant.

"But you gotta admit," Levi said and pressed another kiss against her lips; "that it is a good plan." Then he stood up and grabbed the towel from his lounger and went back to the hotel with Hanji.

/

In Trost, it had been raining for the last five days. Erwin was standing at the glass-wall in his suite. The sight of the city in front of him was grim. The pouring rain and the fog softened the outlines of the buildings; it seemed just as if the world was blurred. Erwin noticed a car stopping on the other side of the street, across from the hotel. It was just a blurry yellow dot – probably a cab - and the Don couldn't see whether someone was getting out of the car, or just in. He hated such days, for the sole reason of not feeling like he could control everything. The yellow dot started moving again and seconds later, Erwin heard the hotel-phone ringing behind him.

_So, someone was coming_ - he thought and went to answer it.

"_Sir_," the voice of the receptionist greeted him. "_A certain Mr. Zackly asks if you could meet him._"

Erwin furrowed his brow. He couldn't think of a reason why Zackly would visit him. Much less, why he would come here with a cab, instead with one of his private cars.

"Send him up," he said and hung up. Then, he sat down in his black armchair and crossed his arms, waiting for that unexpected guest to arrive.

"Don Smith, I'm glad you could spare some time for me," Zackly announced instead of a greeting and entered the room, two guys in black suits were following him a few steps behind.

"Darius Zackly," Erwin said as he stood up to shake Zackly's hand. He pointed for the man to take a seat on the black leather couch. The two men in black looked questioning at Erwin and left the room immediately after the Don nodded shortly. "What brings the Chief of Staff of the Military Police in my office?" He asked when they closed the door.

Zackly chuckled. "You call this an office? It's almost bigger than my house."

Erwin forced a smile at the lame comment. "I'm pretty sure you didn't come here to discuss architecture, Chief."

The guest nodded in approval and leaned a little more forward, "Don Smith," he started. "I am here to ask you kindly, to stay out of our business."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, Chief." Erwin said with an innocent air.

Zackly cleared his throat, obviously trying to suppress his anger. He knew that he shouldn't do or say anything to anger the Don at his 'office', or else he wouldn't get out of this room alive. "We had a deal that you'll keep out of the politics of this town," he reminded Smith.

"As long as I remember," Erwin said with a soft smile; "your part of the deal was to keep the police out of my business."

"If you're referring to the incident with Agent Dawk's department," Zackly said, "than I can assure you that he acted on his own will, which no one from us approved of."

"I see," Erwin commented. He knew that with _'us'_, Zackly meant the Wall-Cult; a secret organisation whose members were very well-esteemed and powerful men, like Zackly, some ministers as well as the town's mayor. Pretty much as Erwin knew that the Wall-Cult would do anything to see him dead.

"Chief, I'm afraid your time here is up; I have another meeting."

The Don stood up and watched Zackly do the same. "It was nice to see you," Erwin said and held his hand in his guest's direction, before the man could have said anything.

Understanding that he missed his chance to offer another deal, Zackly shook the Don's hand and took his leave.

After Zackly left the room, Erwin sat back in his chair. He knew that Zackly was speaking to him as a member of the Wall-Cult, and not as the CSA of the Military Police. The question however was, why did the Cult decided to contact him now? What did they want from him?

Erwin needed answers before he could decide how to act. Zackly's visit meant another thing: it was warning for the Recon Corps, most of all for Erwin, to stick to their drug-dealing and keep out of other things. Surely, the Cult must have noticed how the Corps had slowly started to take over the town.

_And they want to get rid of us_ - Erwin concluded and glanced at his cellphone, that was lying on the coffee-table. Should he call Levi and order him to come back even though he had sent him there just three days ago?

Incertain, he reached out for it. The clock on the display indicated that it was 15:23, which meant that it was 23:23 in Turkey, where Levi currently was.

His job was to meet up with their supervisor in Turkey, where the Recon Corps possessed illegal plantations of opium poppy, which were used for producing the opium, as well as the heroin, they dealt with.  
>Normally, three days would have been enough for such a task, but then Erwin had suggested for Hanji to accompany Levi, and that they should stay there for a week. He thought that he wouldn't need them in Trost, since the lab at the 'Titan' was being renovated that week.<p>

Erwin flipped his phone over a few times in his hand, before he decided to make a call.

"_Yes?"_

"Nanaba, where are you right now?"

"_I'm at the club_," she responded. _"Is something wrong?"_

"You could say so," Erwin answered. "Can you come over now?"

"_Sure_," she said with no hesitation. "I'll send the workers home for today then."

"Good," he said and hung up.

/

* * *

><p><strong>AN: for all of you that asked for a sequel, here you go ^-^**

**(the cliche beginning is my ahead of time-excuse for the stuff that may follow. or not.  
>as always, i'm not 100 % sure if i'll use all the ideas i have for the story)<br>**

**but one thing's for sure: you can expect insight in erwin's & nanaba's past, as well as more appearances of the shiganshina trio****  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 2

Jean glanced at the clock and let out a groan. It was only 2 p.m., which meant that he had to fill out forms for another 4 hours. And if that wasn't bad enough, his partner for that job was Jaeger. Even though they shared a flat, they couldn't really stand each other. Jean guessed that if it wasn't for Armin, he and Eren would have killed each other a long time ago.

"I didn't come here to fill out this shit," Eren groaned. This time, Jean didn't tell him to shut up, because, for once, he shared the same opinion. "I'm a cop, not a fucking secretary."

Ever since Special Agent Dawk's failed collaboration with the Organisation, his 'Anti-Mafia'-department was abolished and the men that worked for him were assigned to do other shit - _like filling out some stupid papers no one needed_.

"Do you think Armin and Mikasa had more luck than we?" Eren tried to communicate with Jean again, as his first attempt to small-talk had failed.

"Anything's better than this," Jean answered. "And now shut up and go back to work, I don't want to sit here forever because of you."

The other boy rolled his eyes, but he didn't say anything. They worked in silence for 15 minutes, when it was interrupted by an announcement through the loud-speakers that were installed in every room.

- _All units to the press-room. I repeat, all units go to the press-room _-

Being more than happy that they can leave their work, Jean and Eren sprinted out of the room. Both knew that the conference room wasn't big enough to fit all the workforce of the Military Police and they hoped to arrive on time, so they would have somewhere to sit.

When they arrived there, all the chairs were already taken though, so they made their way through to the window. It was rather loud in the room, everyone trying to guess why they all had to meet there. Jean tried his best to catch as many scraps of converstation as he could.  
>Ever since the Mafia's war against the Organisation was over, the MP hadn't tried anything to get near the Corps, thus Jean had no contact with them. The Don had ordered him to call only if he would find out something useful and Jean strongly hoped that one of his colleagues would drop a hint that their department was working on something against the Corps. To tell the truth, Jean missed his life as double-agent, as well as the regular secret-meetings he had with Marco. He wondered if the Mafioso now had better tasks to fulfil than he did.<p>

The door flew open again, but this time it was their superior officer Dennis Eibringer coming in, together with the CSA Zackly. Everyone in the room jumped up and saluted as the two men passed the chairs to the front of the room. Jean wondered why on earth the Chief of Staff of the MP was there. In his two years at the MP, Jean had never seen the CSA, he only recognized him, because of the huge portrait of Zackly that was hanging in the hall of their station.

Zackly stepped to the lectern and Eibringer passed him a sheet.

"If you hear you name, stay in this room. If not, go back to you work," the CSA said with a loud voice. Then he put on a pair of glasses and looked at the paper.

"Ackermann Mikasa," _- everyone in the room turned to her with a questioning mien, but the woman only shrugged her shoulders; no, she didn't knew what was up either _–

"Freudenberger Marlo, Dreyse Hitch," - _all the heads turned away from Mikasa to them, Marlo and Hitch were eying each other with a confused mien _–

"Arlert Armin," – _a murmur went through the room, while Mikasa, Hitch and Marlo were one of the best recruits in the battlefield, everyone knew that Armin couldn't keep up with their strenght_ –

"Jeager Eren," _- Jean formed a 'what' with his lips and Eren shrugged his shoulders_ –

"Kirschtein Jean," - _now it was Eren's turn with an unbelieving 'dude what'_ –

"Boris Feulner and Anka Rheinberger. That's all."

Leaving a confused bunch of MP-recruits in the room, Zackly and Eibringer walked out with fast steps.

"What the hell does he want," Eren asked and Jean shrugged with his shoulders. He couldn't think of one mission which would require them to work together.

Slowly, the people disappeared out of the room, only the one's whose names were mentioned staying behind.

"Do you guys have any idea what they want?" Boris asked.

"Not the slightest," Marlo answered and went to sit down on one of the chairs in the first row. Hitch and Boris followed him immediately and Anka glanced irresolutely through the room, before she did the same.

"Okay, why's she here?" Eren asked with a low voice. "She's the only one that doesn't belong to either of our two groups."

"Don't be so mean, Eren," Armin whispered back. "She's actually a very clever person."

"How do you know this?" Now it was Jean's turn to ask. Eren wasn't the only one that had noticed that Zackly had picked out two cliques, and Anka didn't belong to neither of them.

"I've worked together with her in the last two weeks," Armin explained and with those words, he went to the chairs as well, sitting next to the said woman.

"You have nothing to say to this?" Eren turned to Mikasa.

She looked at him with her usual stoic mien. "Why? I'm not the jealous boyfriend." Then she walked forward as well.

"I don't want to work together with people I don't know," Eren said to Jean, as he was the only one that hadn't left his spot.

"You know Hitch and the others," Jean reminded him and started walking to the rest.

"Yes, and I don't like them," Eren called after him.

/

Zackly stood in Eibringer's office. The superior officer had a worried mien.

"Sir, I'm not sure whether this will be a good idea," he said.

"Are you questioning my decision?" Zackly asked harshly and glanced at his wrist-watch_. That damn bastard dared to be late!_

"No, Sir. It's just, it was your decision to lay him off two months ago. I don't understand why he'll be back."

Before the CSA could answer, someone knocked on the door. "Finally," Zackly said and went to open it.

Eibringer had no other choice but to follow the two men to the conference room.

/

15 minutes had passed since they had been told to stay in the conference room. Now, their curiosity slowly faded into annoyance because they had to wait. Jean only hoped that Jeager and he wouldn't have to work overtime to finish the forms they were supposed to fill out now.

Suddenly the door flew open and the eight police-trainees jumped up from their chairs.

They all starred at the three men coming in with wide eyes. This time, Zackly and Eibringer had Nile Dawk with them.

"What the hell?" Jean hissed under his breath. _Dawk had been thrown out after his failed operation, hadn't he?_

"I am here to inform you, that Special Agent's Dawk's department will come back to life this day," Zackly said, looking in the small crowd. "And you all have been chosen to work under him. From now on, you'll take orders solely from him."

Jean looked at Dawk. That bastard was standing next to Zackly, a pleased smirk on his face. _What the hell had happened to make Zackly change his previous decision? _– he thought.

/

Marco Bodt's phone buzzed twice.

_1 new message: _

**- Jean: wanna meet for a coffee? - **

/

* * *

><p><strong>AN: thank you for your reviews :)<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

Hanji put her last shirt in the suitcase and closed it with a sigh. She was pissed that their holidays ended too soon because the Recon Corps apparently had enemies everywhere. It was her first time abroad and she had fallen in love with this country. Far away from all the troubles in Trost she had felt relaxed for the first time in months. And even though Levi had done nothing but complaining about the heat, he was fun to be around in the evening, when they had gone for a walk through the city or to a narghile-bar.

"Ready?" Levi asked as he stepped into the bedroom of their suite.

Hanji just huffed as an answer. She put on a thin jacket and hid her gun under it.

"You look angry," Levi commented as he watched her do so. But he was glad that she had taken the gun without him telling her to do so. Hanji still hated weapons and she had never used the gun, except for practising now and then - and that Levi had to force her.

"My, how did you guess that?" Her voice was cold.

Levi sighed. As if it wasn't trouble enough that someone was obviously after them, and he couldn't find out for who had sent them. "Look, I'm sorry."

"Whatever," she mumbled and grabbed the handle of her suitcase. Once again, she wondered what had happened in the past of the Recon Corps that had brought them so many enemies. Like seriously, how did Erwin and Levi even managed to remember the names of all the different groups that wanted to kill them?

"Nalan found out who the guys are," Levi said as they were standing in the elevator.

"Who's Nalan?" Hanji asked, because it was the first time she heard that name.

"Our supervisor here," Levi explained. "Anyway, she told me that they work for Shadis."

"Never heard of him," she commented.

"He's a pest," Levi offered as an explanation. The worst part about Shadis was that he had no criminal organisation on his own, but he rather offered his 'skills 'to anyone who was ready to pay. In Levi's eyes, he was a low-life who hid behind the names of powerful Mafia-groups.

"Will you kick his ass for ruining our holidays?" Hanji suddenly asked, and this time, even a grin appeared on her face.

Instead of an answer, Levi just smirked at her comment.

The elevator stopped with a jolt and they entered the hotel-lobby. Levi scanned the room quickly and recognised the woman from the beach sitting at one of the tables, reading a book. Just as Levi wondered whether or not Hanji and he would be able to sneak out without her noticing, she looked up. She saw the pair and jumped up.

"Shit," Levi hissed and pushed Hanji back into the elevator. He slammed the "-1" button, which would bring them into the underground-garage. The doors slid close just before the woman reached them.

The ride lasted only a few seconds. The Mafia-pair ran out, leaving their luggage behind them. Levi grabbed Hanji's hand and dragged her further into the garage, hoping that they would have some time before Shadi's men got down there as well. With his free hand, Levi fished out the car-keys from his pocket and pressed the unlock-button. He had no plan where it was parked; the lobby-boy had done it on the first day they had arrived, and since then they had never used it. The car was too far away for the sound of the doors being unlocked to be heard, but Levi saw the brief flashing of the backlights.

"There," he shouted and Hanji nodded. To Levi`s concern, she was getting slower. "C'mon, we're almost there!"

They had another 10 meters to run, when he heard voices shouting behind them.

With a last sprint, Levi and Hanji stumbled up to their car, and jumped in. Without putting on his seat-belt, Levi started the engine, and whirled the Audi out of the parking-lot.

"Watch out!" Hanji screamed. One of Shadi's men was running towards the car, with his gun out.

The lane between the parking-lots was around 3 meters wide, since they were one-way-lanes. Shadi's guy stopped in the middle and aimed for the car.

"Down!" Levi yelled and floored the gas pedal._ He had to make it out before the guy fired the gun!_

A shot fell, followed by Hanji's scream. One second later, a loud smack. The sound of something breaking. Then, a body crashing against the windshield; the sound of glass cracking. The body was thrown up by the impact, landing once on the car top, before it slid on the floor.

Before Levi even realized what happened, another guy jumped out. Both hands gripping the steering wheel, Levi veered to the left, only missing the man by millimetres. The sound of a bullet hitting aluminium was the last thing Levi heard, before he finally managed to exit the garage. People that were around the hotel, screamed and jumped out of the way, as the raven manoeuvred the car at an insane speed through the pedestrian area. At the first possibility, he left the pedestrian area and manoeuvred the car on the highway towards the airport.

"You can come up," he said to Hanji, after making sure that no one had followed them.

/

Ever since Dawk had come back, the chosen recruits for his new department had to undergo ridiculous trainings.

Ridiculous, as in running 10 km every day to stay fit.

Jean cursed and grabbed his water bottle, when he finally arrived at the finish-line. He officially regretted that he ever joined the MP. With a loud groan, he let himself sink on the grass next to the running track, hoping that he would never have to stand up again.

"Wanna grab some lunch later with us?" Mikasa asked as she sat down next to him.

"I can't today," he huffed and looked up from his lying position to her. As usual, she had finished her run way ahead of everyone else and didn't even look like she had been running.

If his answer surprised her, she didn't let it show. Until now, they always had gone to lunch together - with Armin and Eren in tow, of course. "Okay, see you later then." With those words Mikasa grabbed her towel and water-bottle and went towards the door of the changing-rooms.

Jean hurried up and did the same thing. He hoped that he wouldn't run across Armin or Eren, _especially Eren_. Because as disinterested as Mikasa was about his lunch-plans, he was sure that his other two roommates wouldn't let him go without questions.

.

After a quick shower, Jean left the building of the Police-Academy. He hailed a taxi and pulled out his phone, after giving the driver the address. He was already 1o minutes late, and wondered whether Marco would be mad at him. As much as Jean had learned from their previous meetings, Marco was a very punctual person.

**-To: Marco: - sry, training lasted longer than expected. be there in 5. -**

When the cab stopped in front of the Starbucks-café, Jean hadn't received any answer from Marco. Without giving it any further thought, Jean entered the shop and scanned the few tables. However, the familiar freckled guy was not amongst the customers.

Just as Jean sat down with his order to wait for him, his phone rang.

_Incoming call: Marco_

"Hey, I'm already here," he answered.

"I know, I see you," the voice on the other line said. A voice, that wasn't Marco. It wasn't even close to Marco's voice. It was a female voice.

"Uhm, I ...," but before Jean could say anything, the woman on the other side interrupted him.

"Stand up, and come to the table across the room," she instructed him.

Jean rose from his seat and turned around. Across, there were a few tables, but only one was occupied with a woman, sitting alone. She had a phone pressed against her ear and nodded when she saw Jean looking at her.

"So, you're Jean," she said instead of a greeting as he sat down at her table.

"And you are? And why do you have Marco's phone" he asked and ogled her suspiciously. She must be around his age, maybe a little bit younger, had brown hair that was tied up in a messy bun.

"I'm Sasha," she offered with a smile. "I'm your new contact person."

"Why?"

"Smith's order," she said and broke away a piece of Jean's muffin, as if it was the most normal thing to do when having coffee with a total stranger.

"What happened to Marco?" Jean asked, pretending that her little gesture didn't irritate him.

"He was killed," Sasha said bluntly. "At that times the Corps had some pretty stupid things going on. Our scientist got killed, there was a mole in the team and some old enemy rose from the death. Now, someone saw Marco talking to you and assumed that he was the mole."

Jean looked at her with his mouth agape. _Marco was dead?_ And the worst part was; the guy was dead because he was seen with Jean.

"Well," Sasha continued. "Since my partner is in jail, Smith thinks that I don't have nothin' better to do than to play double-agent. So, tell me what I need to know."

And so, Jean started talking to her about Dawk's new training-methods, about how they were better trained to use weapons than any other Department and about all the rumours that were going around in the MP.

Sasha listened to him without ever interrupting him. She nodded now and then, to show him that she was listening. However, she continued to 'steal' bits of his muffin while he was talking. Somewhere in the middle of his speech, Jean accepted that he would have to leave the café without having a muffin there. Without commenting it, he slid the plate over to her side of the table.

/

* * *

><p><strong>AN: i am SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME THAT LONG TO UPDATE T_T <strong>  
><strong>i'm trash. <strong>  
><strong>i didn't have that much time to write, and when i did, i worked on an idea for the main plot of this story, just need to figure out how to get there ^^<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

/

_An almost dark room, the moonlight falling through the open window was the only source of light. _

He _was standing across from the single-bed, but_ he _wasn't really there. It was like floating somewhere between time and space. _

_It was a simple room in a student dorm and on the small bed, tow students - two lovers - were lying in each other's arms, promising each other eternity._ He _knew that they hadn't left the room for the whole weekend. _

_The clock tower, which was standing down in the centre of the little campus, stroke midnight. _

He _knew what was about to come next._ He _had already gone through this situation once, and then again and again - _

_in his sleep. _

_Footsteps were heard in front of the door, then a knock. Fierce. Decisive._

_The two students jerked up and the door flew open before any of them could have said anything. A man entered and pressed the light-switch. His eyes stopped briefly on the young woman, mustering her curiously, before he looked at the young man next to her. "You have to leave."_

_The boy, who just had turned 19 three days ago, looked alarmed. "Why?"_

_"I'll tell you everything in the car," the man said with a quick side-glance at the brown haired girl. _

_"I'm not going anywhere before you explain what's up," the boy said stubbornly. _

_"It has to do something with your father." _

_"What about him?" the boy asked with anger in his voice. _

He _shook his head, whispering a pained no. No, don't say anything else. But _he _knew that no one heard _him_. As well as_ he _knew that even if, by any wonder, the boy would hear_ him _and actually listen, it wouldn't change anything. _

_Not in reality at least. _

_"He can't order me to come back now! He has promised that I can finish this!"_

_The man sighed and stepped closer. He had dark bags under his eyes and his usually shaved chin was covered with beard stubbles. Everything on him indicated that he hadn't slept for days, even the crumpled shirt under the brown sport coat. "Erwin, please," the man started and the boy, Erwin, tensed up. The man, his uncle, was using his real name. _

_Erwin's girlfriend looked at him with a confused mien; she didn't know him as Erwin. _

_"The Don is dead. I am so sorry."_

He _remembered this moment all to well. Until one minute ago, he had just been a normal student, and his biggest problem back then was whether or not he did well on his history exam. And in the other moment, his carefully made-up world broke apart._ _His father, the Don of the Survey Corps was dead. Which made Erwin the successor; if he would be able to get the members to accept him as their leader. _He_ saw his dream-self slowly stand up, a dead expression on his face, his movements robot-like. _

_That was the exact moment everything inside him died. The moment, he became aware that he had to become a monster, in order to survive. _

_His girlfriend was screaming and shouting at him, using the name she knew him under, demanding an explanation. She looked confused and hurt. _

He _saw himself stepping out of the room, without turning back to her, his uncle following him outside._

/

"Erwin! Erwin! Wake up, you fucking idiot!" Levi grabbed Erwin's shirt with both hands, trying to shake the Don out of his sleep.

Levi had been surprised to find Erwin sleeping in his arm-chair, in the first place. Even though he had been close to the Don for some years; that was the first time Levi had seen Erwin asleep. But even when the blonde was asleep, his slumbering face had no soft, peaceful features; it looked more like he was in great pain.

"Wha-" Erwin's eyes flew open and his body jerked away from Levi's touch.

"Levi, what are you doing here?" the blonde asked after a few seconds that it took to sort his thoughts. "Aren't you supposed to be in Ku_ş_adasi until Friday?"

"I am," Levi started and set down on the closest chair to him, "but Shadis sent his men after us. So we figured it'd be best to come home."

The Don looked at him with a furrowed brow, while trying to smooth down the messy hair on the back of his head. "Shadis?"

"Don't know who sent him though," Levi admitted. He put out a half-empty pack of cigarettes - that he always carried in a pocket of his worn-out leather jacket - and put it on the desk without taking a cig out. 'Officially' he had stopped smoking two months ago - _mostly due to Hanji's aggressive anti-smoking speeches she held every time he lit one_ - but he still couldn't get himself to throw the pack away. Nicotine had been the only drug he had allowed himself to use. It calmed him down. Having the pack with him, kept him more or less sane. That way he knew that he always had something when it would come to the crunch.

A moment passed in silence, both of the men lost in their own thoughts.

It was Levi, who broke it. "You look like shit. Are you alright?"

Erwin looked up to him. The Don's face was pale and his otherwise steady gaze looked lifeless. Levi could tell that there was something that bothered the man, but instead of giving an answer to that question, Erwin changed the subject. "I think Shadis works for the Wall-Cult."

If it would have been any other name, Levi would have just ignored it and repeated his former question. But ... "The Wall-Cult? What the hell do _they_ want from us?"

"Our deaths, probably." Erwin said, with no emotions in his voice. There was no sign if it was meant only sarcastically or not.

Now it was Levi's turn to eye the Don with a raised brow. "How come?"

Up until that time, the Wall-Cult had left the Survey Corps alone. It wasn't a secret that each of them wanted the other destroyed, but both organisations managed to mind their own business. It resembled the cold war: every one of them trying to take over the power without attacking the other one directly. A dangerous game, which left no room for mistakes.

"It seems like they got it that we're trying to take over their place," Erwin said, an amused grin flashing over his face for a second. "Zackly was here on Monday. He threatened me to stop."

"Took them long enough," Levi commented. It was stunning, just how dull the Cult was.

"Mh ... Oh, and before I forget it: Nile is back at the MP again."

"Fucking wonderful," Levi hissed. He couldn't stand that bastard and what bugged him the most was that he couldn't just kill him as he pleased. It was not like he hadn't had chances to do so in the past, - _Dawk was a fucking idiot, who wouldn't be able to survive a cross-fire for 10 seconds_ - but for some strange reason, Erwin explicitly forbid him to do it.

"Apparently he has a new training program, and his Department gets the most attention from Zackly. This time, he picked out the recruits for it himself. Luckily he picked Jean as well.  
>Anyway, I have put Sasha as his contact person." And then Erwin told Levi about the things he had heard from Sasha. "Maybe it wouldn't be too bad if you put a team together, in case that Nile decides to move against us."<p>

"_In case_," Levi spitted and rolled his eyes. Erwin made it sound like the police-jerk could have any other plans than attacking the Corps. "Why don't you just let me go there and blow his head up?"

"Levi." It was threateningly and probably short for: _Stop it, if you plan on leaving this room with your own head whole._

The raven lifted his hands in defense, but the move had still something mocking to it. "Alright. I'll behave myself if he does."

Erwin sighed. "What are you, 12?"

"Hey, you're the one that fucked things up with Zackly. Jesus, I left you alone for 4 days and look what happened."  
>It wasn't entirely Erwin's fault and Levi knew it. But it bothered him nonetheless that the Don apparently <em>wanted <em>to make their lives as tiresome as possible with Dawk around. It was risky to attack Zackly. _Hell, it would be a sheer kamikaze-act._ But Dawk? No one cared about that goat-faced jerk.  
>"And besides, what the fuck is your problem with Dawk? Is that some other secret-agent-bullshit you've pulled through years ago?"<p>

A heavy silence fell above them, Levi's face in an angry scowl. "Is it, _Smith_?"

.

_He was using Smith_ - Erwin thought and it took him by surprise. The only time Levi had called him by his surname was years back, when he had joined the Corps. Hearing Levi call him like that had a displeasing vibe to it.

_As if he had lost his trust in 'Erwin'_.

Erwin mustered his subordinate. He remembered just how angry Levi had gotten last year, when he had found out about Jean. The Don could only imagine how furious Levi must be right now, thinking that Erwin might have kept another secret from him.

But the very idea that Levi really considered the option that Dawk could be a double agent was - _at least in Erwin's eyes, it seemed_ - absurd.

Suddenly, the Don started laughing, what earned him another mad glare from Levi. "Seriously? You really think that I'd allow someone as incompetent as Nile to be a double-agent for the Corps?"

The scowl didn't fade completely. "What's the deal with him then?"

"It's complicated," Erwin offered with a serious voice again, "but I assure you that he is not one of us. He never was and will never be."

For a moment, Levi seemed to think about whether or not he should believe Erwin.

"And besides, I only said to let him alive if it wasn't absolutely necessary to kill him."

Levi sighed. "Good. But I'll find out what connection you have to him."

At that, Erwin only smiled. It was one of those _'I want to see you trying'_-smiles he often gave people who wanted to prove him better. Usually, they never did.

"Anyway, I'm leaving," Levi said and stood up. Strictly speaking, he had come to see Erwin only to tell him that Hanji and he were back in town. "I'll talk to Gunther about the team and I'll let you know the names by tomorrow."

Erwin accompanied him to the elevator. The tension between them had decreased for the biggest part but it was still sensible, hanging like a dark thundercloud above them. Erwin knew that he couldn't afford to lose Levi's trust, but he couldn't tell him the truth about Dawk. Not yet.

"I know you're angry, but please trust me on this one," he said as Levi stepped in the elevator.

Levi's gaze met his and the raven answered with a short nod. Then the doors slid close.

/

* * *

><p><strong>Back story:<br>Erwin's mother had died when he was still a little child and the boy grew up with his father - who was the first Don in the Corps. Erwin had been home-schooled and he was only sent to college because he persuaded his father into sending him there.  
>the deal was: Erwin gets to live 4 years as a 'normal' teenager, before he would come back home and learn everything about leading the Mafia.<br>Unfortunately, it only lasted one year.  
>and there was no one back home to teach him. <strong>

**/**

**AN: the dream part is maybe confusing - it's supposed to portray Erwin (the non-cursive 'he') being very aware that he is in a flash-back-like dream.  
>idk if it makes sense?<strong>

**as for Nile - his cover as double agent would blow up the first second he'd open his mouth ... ****or it may not. ;)**

**anyways, thanks for reading. :)**

**.**

**.**

**(p.s. if you wonder what Erwin's alias in college was - i'm rooting for Chris Evans.)**


	5. Chapter 5

_14:15_

Levi was sitting in the dinning-hall at the headquarters. The big hall was, for the first time in months it seems, completely empty. He had sent away the few people that had been in before.

On the desk in front of him, there was a sheet of paper, with 7 names on it. Levi looked at them and he wondered whether this one was going to work or not. It was true that he was sceptical, but then he remembered that he had felt the same way back then, when there were other names written there. Back then, there were only 4 names on the paper: _Petra, Arouro, Gunther, Erd._

Back then, that was one of the best decisions he has ever made.

Now that Gunther was the only one alive, Levi slowly admitted that Erwin had been right with his 'form another squad'-orders all along. Even though Gunther was still one of the few people Levi trusted, he alone wasn't enough when it'd come to confront the MP.

_14:18_

The door opened and Gunther entered the room with two cups of coffee. He sat down next to Levi and placed one mug in front of his boss, the other one still in his hands.

"Have the clowns arrived yet?" Levi asked him. Then he took the mug that was meant for him, and mumbled a thank you.

"I haven't seen anyone between kitchen and here," Gunther answered. "But to be fair, you said 14:30. So, no one's late yet."

Levi just rolled his eyes at the comment and concentrated on the names on the paper again.

The day before, Erwin had told him about goat-face being back at the MP and that the Corps would need a defence-squad _'if Nile attacked'_.

_Erwin and his fucking 'if'!_

So, to be prepared for the time the _'if Nile attacks' _would turnto _'__when __Nile attacks, because everyone knows that this is the only possible scenario that'll happen_' Levi and Gunther had set together until late at night, trying to form a good team.

_Sasha, Ymir, Historia, (Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie), Gunther_ - that were the names Levi had presented Erwin.

He had chosen Sasha for the most obvious reason: she was Jean's contact-person. It would be simply insane not to have her on this team.

Ymir was a good soldier, she had a sharp mind and she was quick. But the only problem Levi had with her was her big mouth. It was no secret that she would start fights even with her comrades. In order to ameliorate the damage with Ymir as good as possible, Levi had put Historia on the team as well.  
>At first, he hadn't really thought about Historia on his team because he didn't know how good she would be in a battle-field. But after giving it a second thought, Levi knew that he would need her for other reasons then to keep Ymir in check. The petite blonde was at her best in 1-at-1-situations, when she could use her material-art-skills instead of a gun. Every enemy had made the mistake to underestimate her because of her cute appearance so far.<p>

The Titan-Trio were the obvious choice when it'd come to a war with the MP. However, it had taken Levi a long time until he had written their names on the list. Even though the three of them worked perfectly together as a team, Levi wasn't sure if they would keep the same performance working with other people. And he couldn't afford having a team that won't work together.

And Gunther was there; well, because he always had been. In fact, Levi trusted him enough to make Gunther his first assistant.

_14:23_

The door opened again. This time, Sasha came into the room with a big plate in her hands.

"Oh, I didn't know you're already here," she said and walked over to the table the two men were sitting. "Thought I'd bring something to eat," she then added and put the plate down. It was full with cookies and, unintentionally, it reminded Levi of Petra. She also used to bring some food to their meetings.

"That's great! Thank you!" Gunther said enthusiastically and took a cookie before Levi could have said anything.

Levi could tell that Sasha was trying her best to hide the fact that she was nervous. She looked around the room, but she avoided looking at him or Gunther. He knew what the poor kid must be thinking; _'What in the world have I done to deserve this?_'.  
>Almost all the members of the Corps were afraid of him, and Levi was perfectly aware of that fact. It never bothered him, because he was trying his best to keep it that way. It made his work easier.<p>

"You've met with Kirschtein three times in the last days," Levi started and Sasha stiffened her back when she realized he was talking with her.

"Uhm, yes. But Don Smith said that he'll send you my reports and -"

"Don't worry, it's not about the reports," Levi interrupted her. "I've seen them. I was just wondering what your opinion about him is? Do you think he'll be able to keep up with his work without becoming suspicious?"

The girl let out a surprised '_oh_', as the conversation took a turn she didn't expect. "I don't know, to be honest. I mean, I don't know him that well ... but I think that he would be able to do so."

Before Levi could reply, Historia and Ymir entered the room, hand in hand. Ymir had a scowl on her face, while Historia was smiling like always.

"We're not late, are we?" she asked while sitting down next to Sasha.

Levi glanced at his phone, before he just shook his head briefly. It was 14:28.

The next two minutes passed in an awkward silence between them.

_14:31_

And the Titan-Trio still wasn't there. But it was just one ridiculous minute, so Levi didn't give it a thought.

_14:35_

Well, now they were late.

Meanwhile, Christa had attempted to start a conversation, while Ymir and Gunther stayed out of it by eating cookies.

_14:40_

Five minutes were excusable, but not ten.

_14:45_

Christa and Sasha had stopped their talking when they realised how angry Levi had gotten.

Ymir and Gunther looked warily at the raven and chewed slowly, like Levi would punch their food out of their mouths if he'd saw them chewing.

_14:46_

_14:47_

The door flew open. Levi stood up with an angry scowl.

"We're so sorry we're late," Bertholdt gasped for breath and Levi was so surprised to hear him talk that he didn't responded immediately, which turned out to be a mistake.

"You see, something rather stupid happened now" Reiner said, his usual stupid grin on his face.

And now Levi remembered why he hesitated to put their names on the list. The _I'm-not-sure-how-they'll-work-with-others _was in fact bullshit. The real reason behind the hesitation was Braun and his stupid shit-eating grin.

"What have you done this time?" Levi asked calmly, although he felt the anger rising in him.

Bertholdt had an expression as if he was in great pain as he glanced at Reiner. The lanky giant was sweating more than usually.

Annie pulled the hood of her jacket deeper in her face.

Only Reiner wasn't afraid – _or rather ashamed_ – to look at the people gathered in the hall. "We had to take care of something regarding the club and it took us longer than expected," he started and Levi noticed how Bertholdt and Annie slowly stepped away from Braun.

The raven was sure that, no matter what Reiner would say now, it'd give him a huge headache.

"It was almost half past and we were in a hurry to arrive on time," Reiner continued. "And on our way here we … accidentally ran over … someone."

"Someone?" No, Levi didn't even want to think about who it might have been.

The half of the team that was sitting didn't dare to breathe. They looked curiously between their superior and Braun.

"But beforehand, let me tell you that it was partly his fault, because he crossed against the red light."

_He … Could it be possible that Reiner meant …_

"Braun? Spit it out!"

"The Mayor…"

/

"THEY HAVE DONE WHAT?!"

Reiss winced as Zackly reacted rather loudly to the news he heard.

"The Recon Corps attended to kill the Major," Dawk repeated his previous sentence and Reiss hid his face in his palm. It was astonishing how stupid the policeman was to actually answer his boss.

"I am not deaf, Dawk! I heard you the first time!" Zackly barked.

"So, what are we going to do now?" one of the members asked.

"We should kill the Don," another one suggested and Nile agreed enthusiastically.

After that suggestion, a heated debate started between the 12 members. It was time to get rid of Smith, they all had agreed on this. But the question was; how should they do it?

Ever since Smith had taken over the place as the Don of the Recon Corps, he turned out to be immortal. Over all the years the Wall Cult had tried to get rid of him, like they had with his father, yet they never managed to do it. Compared to the old Don, Erwin Smith was better organized, better prepared, and much better guarded.

"Gentlemen, you don't understand that we can't kill him without eliminating his Mafia first," Reiss interrupted the discussion in the room with a loud voice.

Everyone turned their head to him. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you really think that the Corps will stop existing after their Don dies? They'll just have someone else take over his place," Reiss stated the most obvious thing. "We need to destroy them from the inside, starting with the weakest links in the chain. Only that way, Smith's death will really matter."

"Do you have any plans how accomplish this, Rod?" Zackly asked and Reiss just smirked diabolically.

Yes, he did have.

/

"_Good evening, my name is John Waters and you're watching the Channel 1 News. Tonight we are starting the programme with a live broadcast from the city-hall, where vice-mayor Dimo Reeves will announce the new law that comes in effect by tomorrow. Mister Reeves, you're on air_."

"_Good evening John, good evening citizens of the municipality of Trost._  
><em>As you may have heard, today our beloved Mayor Fritz was ambushed by the Recon Corps. They have intended to kill him, in order to take over the town ... I can reassure you that their plan failed … Mayor Fritz is still alive and he's being taken care of in a hospital. For his own protection I won't say the name, so that the Mafia won't be able to fulfil their goal.<em>

_The attack on the Mayor clearly shows us what the Mafia's intentions were all along. They have been extorting the people of Trost. In order to keep you all safe, our Military Police couldn't fight back with all their power. Attacking the Recon Corps would have meant war, and we didn't want to put you all in danger._

_Mayor Fritz and I tried our best to make an agreement with the Corps. We tried to keep them away from you innocent townspeople, but every agreement has its price. For the sake of peace, we had to sit and watch them do their criminal things. We could only fight back minimally, so that they wouldn't notice it._

_But now, dear citizens, it is time to stop the madness! Now, it is time to finally fight back with all our power! The Mafia has no place in Trost anymore!_

_The politicians of Trost have all signed the Anti-Mafia-Legislation, which will come in effect by tomorrow morning._

_Starting tomorrow, it is officially illegal to belong to the Recon Corps. The punishment for a membership of this criminal organisation will be the death-penalty._"

/

There was dead silence in the dining hall of the Recon Corps Headquarters. The room was jammed, everyone felt the urge to throw something at the big tv-screen on the wall, and yet no one did. No one dared to move, yet alone say anything.

Everyone knew that Don Smith was standing in the back of the room. They all wondered what expression he was having now, after hearing _that_. And yet, no one dared to turn around.

Suddenly the silence was interrupted by a silent whistle. "Boy, did he just announce a criminal organisation illegal?" It was Nanaba. She was standing in the door with her hands crossed and grinned. "The speech of the century, Ladies and Gentlemen."

"I hope that he does know that legislations decided from the politicians of Trost are only valid in Trost," Rico piped up from somewhere in the room.

There was a murmuring in the hall, until someone shouted "Then let's just move to Stohess."

Laughter spread through the room. The fear everyone had felt upon hearing the news slowly vanished. The situation wasn't helpless, as Rico had pointed out. And if Rico said that the law wasn't valid outside Trost, then everyone believed it, because she would know such stuff after all.

"I'll fucking fling you over to Stohess, if that's what you want," Levi snapped from the back and the laughter immediately stopped. Everyone in the room turned back to him. Levi was standing next to the Don, as he always did. His expression glowering.  
>"They publicly announce a war and your first suggestion is to run away?" his voice was filled with rage. He was about to say something else, but then Erwin put his hand on the raven's shoulder.<p>

"If you feel like leaving, then go ahead," the Don started and took his hand away. "But do you really think that they will stop with Trost?" He paused and looked around. "What do you think they'll do, just turn up tomorrow and shoot everyone? … Believe me, this won't be anything like the battles we normally fight. It'll be much slower, so you don't have to worry too much about it. Just keep to your normal routine, unless I tell you otherwise."

Now everyone started speaking at the same time, and the voices grew louder.

.

Levi looked at the crowed in annoyance. The discussion grew livelier with every second and the raven was sure that it was only a matter of time until fists started flying if someone didn't shut them up.

"What a pain in the ass," he grumbled.

Erwin looked down at him and nodded. "Yes, but just leave it for now. The Cult will probably start with the weak ranks, as well as the one imprisoned. I need you, Gunther, Rico, Nanaba and her squad in my office. We'll have to come up with a strategy, but we won't have any privacy if we stay here."

Levi moved away from the wall, heading towards the direction he supposed Rico was. When she was in sight, Levi just called for her. She looked at him and nodded, then she said something to her squad and left her place.

On his way to the door, Levi passed the table where his new squad was sitting. "You can go home now, except for Gunther, I'll need you here. For the rest, we'll meet tomorrow as previously agreed."

With that being said, Levi wanted to continue his way, but he stopped and looked at the table again. "Braun?" The blonde glanced up. "Out of all stupid things you've ever done, this one beats everything."

"I swear to god, he passed on red!" Reiner defended himself, but Levi already started to walk away.

"As a punishment you'll have to buy coffee for the team from now on," the raven called over his shoulder. He heard some laughter and Reiner's questioning 'what' behind him before he walked out.

When he arrived at the steps, Gunther caught up with him. "Now that's a punishment," the other man laughed and adapted his walking speed with his bosses. "Why do you need me though?"

"Erwin's order," Levi answered and took his car-keys out. He passed them to Gunther. "I'll have to make a call, so you're driving."

"To the Emperor?" his subordinate asked as he took them.

"Yes. And stop at a coffee-shop along the way, I have a feeling that this is going to be a long night."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: okay, so first of all, i'm sorry that you had to wait so long ... i barely had time to write in the last weeks .\**

**second, thanks for still sticking around/reading/liking/following . critics and reviews are always appreciated :)**


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